Sol Bamba believes Neil Warnock is The Daddy when it comes to the paternal powers of football managers.
The Cardiff City centre-back has paid tribute to his “father figure” who he says has cajoled, scolded, praised and inspired the club’s players to achieving their astonishing start to the season of five straight victories.
Bamba scored the winner against QPR in the 2-1 triumph on Saturday to propel Cardiff three points clear at the top, four above third spot, and open a seven-point gap to seventh place.
Warnock has confessed his team’s perfect five-star start has surprised, even startled him, and surpasses any he has achieved in his five decades in the game.
But it is built on the familiar Warnock theme of finding wayward, often troubled players and offering them the warmth of a paternal arm around their sagging shoulders and self-belief.
Ivorian central defender Bamba is one and his 68-year-old manager is also restoring the careers and egos of four other previously unloved but now key players – Kenneth Zohore, Junior Hoilett, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Loic Damour.
“He’s like a father figure to be honest,” said Bamba, who was banned for three matches last season after a touchline meltdown following his sending off at Ipswich.
“We’ve got a very good relationship. We don’t even need to talk much, we just understand each other and he’s given me a lot of confidence to express myself on the pitch.
“When it’s not good he’ll tell you as it is, and when it’s good he’s happy to praise you and that’s what we like.
“He has been a calming influence on me. He gives out a rollicking when you need one. But he gets that balance between when you need to be really woken up and when you need to be calmed down.
“His mind is very, very young. There are a few things about him, which I can’t tell you. He’s very good with the lads, jokes around a lot but at the same time he’s straightforward, and I think footballers appreciate that.
“We had always been in contact, but we had never managed to properly work together before. But as soon as he had the chance to bring me in he did and as soon as I had the chance to work with him I took it.”
Bamba, 31, had been shown the door by Leeds United when Warnock made him his first Cardiff signing last October.
The France-raised defender had gone through five clubs in as many years but after some of those frustrations bubbled to the surface last season, he is now the lynchpin in a Bluebirds defence that has conceded only two goals in 450 minutes.
Warnock said: “You can see why I gave Sol a three-year contact this week. He epitomises Cardiff City at the minute. He brings the best out of Sean Morrison and it’s a happy place.”
“It’s a happy place here at present, but I’m glad we’ve got two weeks off, without a press conference.
“Our supporters will be dreaming of things like promotion, but I normally see 15 points as meaning we need 35 more points to be safe.
“I have to say I’m a little bit more optimistic than that. We’ll be okay if we can stay in the top six by the end of October, but I don’t kid myself.”
QPR were the first club to take the lead against Cardiff this season through Matt Smith’s header. But Hoillett’s persistence gave him a deserved if fortuitous goal against his former club, before Manga’s towering header reflected Cardiff’s dominance.
Rangers manager Ian Holloway complained that referee Simon Hooper should have taken a firmer line towards Cardiff’s Lee Peltier for a challenge on Josh Scowen, when it was still scoreless.
“I over-reacted to a Peltier challenge on my midfelder at first, but my team reacted to that and that’s why we went in front.
“Was it deliberate? Who knows? But the ref should have seen it, though. That’s his job, isn’t it?
“On a different day, we might have sneaked a goal at the end.
“But that’s as good as Cardiff team as I’ve seen. They play some good stuff and the big man up front, Kenneth Zohore, is a handful. They have some potency up front.”